Third-person singular present tense of 'dilute'; to make something thinner or weaker by mixing it with another substance, or to reduce the strength or effect of something.
From Latin 'diluere' (to wash away, to dissolve), which combines 'dis-' (apart) and 'luere' (to wash). The meaning shifted from physical washing to the figurative sense of weakening.
The verb 'dilutes' works beautifully in chemistry, cooking, medicine, and even politics—whenever someone 'dilutes' your voting power, they're literally weakening it using the same metaphor from ancient Latin.
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